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Monthly Archives: January 2008

I’m somewhat bemused – but not overly surprised at the reaction of both the Indian officials, and the Indian supporters at the outcome of the 2nd Test.
First of all, I’m going to say, the decisions against India were shocking. The umpires were flat out terrible and India definitely got the worst of it. It shouldn’t have been an Australian victory, but it should have been a draw. I’ve never, ever thought Steve Bucknor was a good umpire, but in this test he was awful, as was that weird little bloke from England who looked more like he should be umpiring some local 3rd grade than international cricket.
Regardless of that, I’m a trifle annoyed by the hypocrisy of the sporting world. It seems there is one rule for black, and one for white. Or maybe it’s one rule for the “cricket rich” and one for the “cricket poor”.
When Darren Lehmann, in a change room, allegedly exclaimed “dirty black cunt” after being dismissed, the entire world called for his head, the sacking of just about everybody in Australia and then it’s across the papers that each and every person in Australia is a racist.
Now, when Harbhajan allegedly called Andrew Symonds a “monkey” to his face, when that is reported (after a great fuss about racism in the Indian continent recently) it’s the Australians fault again.
I’m personally of the opinion that neither of them are reportable, and that people should just get on with it. The “world” has decided that racism is only defined on the sporting field (so it seems) – and Harbhajan should have been suspended for 3 matches for being an idiot in saying the same thing to Symonds after the recent Indian tour fuss.
However, people have to live by the one standard. This double standard bullshit pisses me off no end.
But I’m not surprised. My brother worked for a number of years in non-European countries. They would openly laugh about how the “British” are so soft, and will do anything to avoid a conflict, and that they would never stand up to conflict.
This is yet another case of that. The “British” are desperately trying to find an “amicable” solution to this. The ICC are scrambling to make India happy. Why ? Money. India has a huge power in the cricket world due to the money.
Make no doubt, this has nothing to do with Australia/Harbhajan/Racism. This is all about the ICB and flexing its considerable muscle in the cricketing world and seeing how far they can push the ICC. I’m a little sad that idiots like Peter Roebuck can’t see through this facade, but what can you expect from a journalist.
Edit: Seems that India also like to stand around when they know they’re out. And not just a nicked catch, but clean bowled. Harbhajan b Pieterson With that vision I think it’s pretty much time for the Indian supporters to shut the fuck up about holding the high moral ground about Australians being the only “cheaters” on the cricket pitch. All teams do it – India got shit decisions from the umpires – stop carrying on.

It’s been an awesome year. The first full calendar year of being a Dad, and George is growing both mentally and physically – as well as his ever increasing confidence and stubbornness. Some people have cruelly suggested that his father is responsible for his single minded determination and expression of frustrations when he can’t get or do what he wants. While it would be unfair of me to take all the credit, there’s certainly a significant part that comes from me. That’s pretty scary in it’s own right.
We’ve gone from very simple words at the beginning of the year, such as “cat”, “mummy”, “daddy” to “daddies glasses”, “georgies tummy” to full on conversations.
George: “Yoghurt gone”
Me: “Where has it gone Georgie ?”
George: “Hiding”
Me: “Oh really, where is it hiding”
George: (Pulls up t-shirt and points) “Tummy”
Me: “Was the yoghurt good ?”
George: (Enthusiastically) “mmmm-mmmmmmm”
Last night was a pretty special ending for the year for me. As we were putting George to bed as part of our ritual we kiss him and put him to bed, and we all have a cuddle, a kiss, say we love each other, and good night. We’ve been saying “I love you George” since he was born, and last night I got a “I love you daddy-bear” in response. I was very excited, but unfortunately it made Sue very sad as I think she’s been really hanging out for the first “I love you”.
On the work front -it’s been a year of victories interspersed with a similar volume of frustrations. Large organisations continue to confound me with their politics driven decision making, as well as general stupidity in the areas of software development. I can confidently state that large organisations “just don’t get it”. I’m not sure what the disconnect is – maybe it’s the volume of “Computer Books/Magazines” that are about that gives the impression that what I do is simple, because I’m yet to come across senior management in any large organisation that understands the important parts of optimising software development – and _how_ to make it better/faster/cheaper.
So, I’d say 2007 has been a success and am really looking forward to what 2008 brings.